The Danger of an Unstable Father

Genesis 6:1-4. "The Danger of an Unstable Father" Ajax Alliance Church. Sunday February 25th, 2024. Genesis 6:1-4. [6:1] When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, [2] the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. [3] Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years." [4] The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. (ESV) As traditional family roles become less and less emphasized, few consider the wider implications. Research through Focus on the family shows that within an authoritative parenting style, a father's children are less likely to have emotional and behavioural issues. His children are also more likely to do well socially, academically, relationally and developmentally when he balances high levels of both sensitivity and limits. Furthermore, through a father's positive effective parenting, a dad's sensitivity early in a boy's life leads to fewer behaviour issues later in the boy's life. Unity in parenting between a mom and dad can result in more feelings of intimacy between a husband and wife, especially from a wife toward her husband. As a result, children have fewer emotional and behavioural issues. Sons who have a good relationship with their father tend to handle stress more effectively. Finally, playing with fathers, including roughhousing, helps children develop self-control, problem-solving skills and self-regulation skills. (https://www.focusonthefamily.ca/content/fathers-matter-the-importance-of-a-father) The impact of an unstable father can be disastrous. Although there is disagreement on who exactly are the parties taking action in Genesis 6:1-4, it is clear that the kind of relationship described here involved some form of grievous sexual perversion, wherein the "sons of God" saw and with impunity took any women ("daughters of man") that they wanted. The sequence here in Gen. 6:2 ("saw ... attractive [good] ... took") parallels the sequence of the fall in Gen. 3:6 ("saw ... good ... took"). In both cases, something good in God's creation is used in disobedience and sinful rebellion against God, with tragic consequences. (Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 61). Crossway Bibles.) God designed the family to be the first line of defence against sin and evil. It should be an environment of learning, nurturing and protecting but it does not always function as God intends. A father must neither abuse his responsibilities in harming his family nor have a hands off, lassez-faire attitude, which is a serious neglect. Such is neglect is basically opening up the gates to the enemy. But to seek out evil in entertainment or a mistaken spirit of openness is an abuse beyond measure. In Genesis 6:1-4 we see that the wickedness of humanity had reached such proportion that they had engaged themselves in demonic relationships. Not only did they not seek God, not only did they not endeavour to know God, but they pursued demons. It is a warning for Today's family in allowing the world to dictate standards and the chaos that will result. From Genesis 6:1-4 we see that to have God, and not the world be the pattern for our families, we must be weary of having four things: 1) An Unstable Father that is Too Permissive (Genesis 6:1), 2) An Unstable Father that Loses Control (Genesis 6:2), 3) An Unstable Father that Tests God's Patience (Genesis 6:3), and 4) An Unstable Father that Reaps What he Sows (Genesis 6:4). To have God, and not the world be the pattern for our families, we must be weary of having: 1) An Unstable Father that is Too Permissive (Genesis 6:1) Genesis 6:1. [6:1] When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, (ESV) At this point in Genesis, the world was already full of sin. For humanity there was murder, polygamy, pride, anger, and vengeance. We have seen quite a catalogue of sins before we ever get to chapter 6. But here in chapter 6 the level of human evil has reached such a point that there is an engagement with the very powers of hell, the very demons themselves. In fact, it is apparently sought out. With the passing of years the seed of Serpent became ever more numerous. The seed of woman-righteous mankind-diminished to the point of being represented by one man, his three sons and their four wives. The opening verses of Genesis 6 point out the contrast between these two communities (Smith, J. E. (1993). The Pentateuch (2nd ed.) (Ge 6:1-10). Joplin, Mo.: College Press Pub. Co.). Moses interrupts his genealogy of Adam's descendants in order to describe the awesome catastrophe God sent on earth's inhabitants during the life of Noah. Here he traces the developments that led to God's decision to send the flood (Jeske, J. C. (2001). Genesis (2nd ed.). The People's Bible (74). Milwaukee, Wis.: Northwestern Pub. House.). When verse one begins: "When man began/Now it came about," is an indefinite phrase, it doesn't tell us what time, it just gives us a general reality, Some time during the pre-Flood 1656 years, at some point along the way, and not just one point but perhaps. it started and just kept going on, at some point man began to multiply on the face of the land. This has the sense that they were spreading out, expanding from the original place of creation. They began to populate the earth.". The motif of multiplying is first introduced by God in Genesis 1:28, where it is presented in a very positive light and viewed as necessary to fulfill God's plans for the earth: Genesis 1:28. [28] And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (ESV) (Reyburn, W. D., & Fry, E. M. (1997). A handbook on Genesis. UBS handbook series (141). New York: United Bible Societies.). The present passage, however, reveals that this God-mandated task leads to increasing wickedness on the earth as the population expands (Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (61). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.). Even though they were sinful, they were making amazing achievements, amazing advancements. They had developed a way to domesticate animals and to practice animal husbandry and the breeding of animals for all the purposes that animals could be used for, as well, as I said, as metallurgy and music and poetry and all of that we find in chapters 4 and 5. They were beginning to tap the tremendous riches that God had put into the world for man to enjoy. And so it was at this time, some time in that pre-flood time of developing civilization. It says that, "At that time daughters were born to them." At some point in human development daughters were born to them. Daughters emphasizes the relation of these young women to their parents and ancestors. Now please don't indicate from that that there weren't any sons born. There wouldn't be any daughters being born if there weren't any sons being born. Verse two shows this. So, the reason for this mention is not to limit but only to identify that in the development of human society girl babies were born. This is the blessing from God. (Reyburn, W. D., & Fry, E. M. (1997). A handbook on Genesis. UBS handbook series (141). New York: United Bible Societies.). * Even though we can enjoy marriage and enjoy family, our ability to procreate, listen carefully, does not guarantee a future for humanity. It didn't guarantee a future for humanity prior to the Flood, they all were drowned. We have limits. God has blessed us with the ability to enjoy marriage and children. But by no means can we assume therefore that we somehow are in control of the perpetuation of that as if there were no responsibility to almighty God. Illustration: (4170 Nineveh's Parents Held Responsible) When the archaeologists were digging in the ruins of Nineveh they came upon a library of plaques containing the laws of the realm. One of the laws read in effect that anyone guilty of neglect would be held responsible for the result of his neglect. (It's been said that:)... If you fail to teach your child to obey, if you fail to teach him to respect the property rights of others, you and not they are ultimately responsible for the result of your neglect (Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.). To have God, and not the world be the pattern for our families, we must be weary of having: 2) An Unstable Father that Loses Control (Genesis 6:2) Genesis 6:2 [2] the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. (ESV) When unholy influences gain a foothold in a family, they control the direction. All Godly definitions of what a family is to be and do are gone, and replaced with worldly counterfeits. Verse 1 deals with marriage, people multiplying and having babies. Verse 2 is some twist on that, some perversion to that general normal pattern of marriage and procreation. This is some aberration of that. Who here are the sons of God? Given the lineage in chapter five, we see a situation where the sons of Seth ("godly sons") married the daughters of Cain, thus completely corrupting the human race (Paschall, F. H., & Hobbs, H. H. (1972). The teacher's Bible commentary: A concise, thorough interpretation of the entire Bible designed especially for Sunday School teachers (19). Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers.). And the first consideration please, to note, is that they are contrasted with the daughters of man. So, we can conclude that whoever they are, the sons of God are different than the daughters of man. It doesn't seem that the sons of God are sons of man. Nor righteous men or to some righteous line of men since there is no such thing as a righteous line of men and there is no way that men in the Old Testament are ever designated as sons of God. Job 1:6 clarifies: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. (ESV) (cf. Job 2:1. That's Satan in the midst of the demons coming before the throne of God. According to Revelation chapter 12 when Satan fell, he took with him a third of the holy angels. And they constitute a force of spirit beings who went from being holy before God to being evil and cast out of the presence of God by virtue of joining Satan in his rebellion. His rebellion is described in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. This was all first seen in regards to the serpent in the Garden back in Genesis 3. Satan himself came into the garden and confronted Adam and Eve, but here we see the sons of God, coming down taking wives of the daughters of man and that is the first description of a mass demonic invasion. The whole of this text is designed to demonstrate how wicked humanity has become. His wickedness is so profound, it is so systemic, it is so far reaching that he at this point really, and I say this of all humanity, they have reached the point where they are no longer redeemable in the eyes of God and consequently this is a description of the wickedness of humanity which precipitates God's judgment in the universal Flood by which God drowned the entire world with the exception of eight people, Noah, his wife, three sons and their wives. Whatever opinion may be entertained as to the operation of natural laws and agencies in the deluge, it was brought on the world by God as a punishment for the enormous wickedness of its inhabitants (Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 1, p. 21). Logos Research Systems, Inc.). Please turn to 1 Peter 3 So, it becomes very apparent to us that the sons of God is a term to designate (fallen) angels. In Job 38:7, the holy angels are also called sons of God. And what that means is they are the direct creation of God. Wherever you have the concept of sons of God, it has reference to one who is made immediately by God, one who is the product of God's creative work. And so, in the Old Testament that term, sons of God, is reserved for those who are not the product of a human union but are the creation of God (cf. Ps. 29:1; 89:6). What is interesting here is that these sons of God, these spiritual beings who exist in their own realm saw the daughters of man were attractive/beautiful and they took as their wives any they chose. The wording of Genesis 6:2 parallels the fall of Eve in the garden (3:6). The implication is that they were driven by lust, so that external beauty, and not character, was their sole criterion in the selection of mates. (Sarna, N. M. (1989). Genesis. The JPS Torah commentary (45). Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.) Just like in the garden when Eve "saw that the fruit was good for food" and pleasing to the eye, and she took and ate. Here in the demonized replay of the fall, the object of lust is not fruit but the bodies of beautiful women that the sons of God "saw" and took for themselves. The picture is one of unmitigated lust. ...It also appears that these marriages were an attempt to grasp something of divinity and to achieve immortality (Hughes, R. K. (2004). Genesis : Beginning and blessing. Preaching the Word (125). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.). How do you know all this was going on? We have New Testament interpretations of this passage, fortunately, by God's goodness. The sons of God were angels, fallen angels, demons. And here is evidence in 1 Peter 3: 1 Peter 3:18-20. [18]For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, [19]in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, [20]because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. (ESV) (KEEP YOUR PLACE IN 1 PETER) * When His body was in the grave from the Friday to the Sunday morning when He arose, His Spirit was alive and where was He? Where was His Spirit? Verse 19, "In which," that is in His Spirit, "He went..." He went somewhere, where did He go? "He went and made a proclamation, a kerusso, an announcement to the spirits now in prison." And it was not a human prison, it was a spirit prison. What do you mean a spirit prison? Well, there were some spirits in prison. Who are they? They were those spirits, now we're not talking about people here, we're talking about spirit beings, they were those spirits, verse 20, who once were disobedient...when?...when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah. Oh, interesting, huh? The spirits that are in this prison are the spirits who were disobedient to God to the limits, to the boundaries that God had set for them in the time of Noah. And Noah was alive when what's going on in Genesis 6. These are the spirits who overstepped their boundaries in the time of and the days of Noah before the Flood. He...those spirits hate Christ, they always hate Christ. And you can believe that when He was dying on the cross and when He died on the cross the news came down, Jesus is dead. And they were having a party celebrating that when He showed up and He announced His triumph over them. Why would they care? Because this is a long battle...a long battle. Spirits as a term is never used for humans in the New Testament unless it is qualified by a genitive, the spirits of just men, or something. It's never used to speak of humans, we're never called spirits. These are spirit beings, these are angels who are in a prison where they have been because they disobeyed God, they overstepped their boundaries in the days of Noah, prior to the Flood. That ties perfectly in with Genesis 6. Now you have the perversity here of these spiritual fallen angels, these demon beings overstepping the boundaries of their realm. They defy God by leaving the defined realm that God has placed them, their spirit world, and they enter the human realm. To procreate physically, they had to possess human, male bodies. This produced an unnatural union which violated the God-ordained order of human marriage and procreation (Gen. 2:24) (MacArthur, J. J. (1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Ge 6:2). Nashville: Word Pub). Quote: As Francis Schaeffer notes: "there is a constant prohibition ... against the people of God marrying those who are not of the people of God.". Now these demons, it says, are motivated because they saw that the daughters of men were attractive/beautiful. (Francis Schaeffer, Genesis in Space and Time, 126.) * The greatest danger in relationships in general is when it is primarily based on physical attraction. Unless there is a spiritual bond, the attraction on outward beauty will wane. Now these daughters of man are not some special group of women, they're just the daughters indicated in generic sense in verse 1. The demons have some desire for these women and so they took as their wives for themselves, whomever they chose. This refers, by the way, not to rape because the word in the Hebrew "to take a wife" is lakahand it describes a marital transaction. To do this, they have to take the body of a man. If you go over, I won't take the time, into Genesis 18-19 you will find that angels appear to Abraham. And in what form do they appear? As men. And later on you'll find Jacob and he is wrestling with an angel and you can't wrestle with a spirit, he's wrestling with an angel in a physical form in the form of a man and the effort is so great that he gets permanently wounded by it. In Hebrews 13 we are reminded that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Why? Because for us to see an angel, for an angel to actually appear and be present, they must come in a form that we can see and they always, always appear in a male form. According to Matthew 22:30, though angels are spirits and in heaven, they don't marry or are given in marriage, but when they appear on earth they always take a human body. Do they...do they create bodies for that? Well angels can't create. It may well be that they work through existing human bodies. Why is this joining in marriage mentioned in this context? Mosaic law codified the prohibition against marriage outside the covenant community; Genesis illustrates how religious intermarriage resulted in calamity for the righteous (e.g., 28:1; 34:1ff.; 38:1ff.). (Mathews, K. A. (1996). Genesis 1-11:26 (Vol. 1A, p. 330). Broadman & Holman Publishers.) Please turn to 2 Peter 2 Why is it wise to discuss future mates with those with experience? Often the infatuation of the moment can blind someone in love to the difficult realities that comes with a marriage commitment. When someone with experience can discuss the choices, from worship together, to the education, discipline and rearing of children, the need for a jointly held belief if crucial to avoid continual conflict and disagreement. In 2 Peter chapter 2 Peter wants to make a point about judgment and he wants to tell people that God's going to judge false prophets. There is a consequence to rebellion against God. Peter explains this in 2 Peter 2: 2 Peter 2:1-5. [2:1] But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. [2] And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. [3] And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. [4] For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; [5]if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; (ESV) * Wait a minute. What do we have here? In verse four it says that God didn't spare the angels that sinned, but put them in some prison. First Peter calls it a prison, here it is called a pit of darkness. And these were some angels at the time of that ancient world of Noah, again. Here they are again. And they're a classic illustration. Listen, if you preach false doctrine, you're going to be judged. And his illustration is God imprisoned those angels who preached that false doctrine in the days of Noah. In Genesis 6, these demons went after strange flesh, they stepped out of their appropriate realm when they came into man and polluted marriage. * God has a very specific design for marriage and sexuality. When it is forsaken with adultery, polygamy, homosexuality or neglect, God promises that judgment is coming. Quote: Matthew Henry summed up the situation with these words: "In all ages there has been a peculiar curse of God upon marriages between professors of true religion and its avowed enemies. The evil example of the ungodly party corrupts or greatly hurts the other. Family religion is put an end to, and the children are trained up according to the worldly maxims of that parent who is without the fear of God. If we profess to be the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, we must not marry without his consent. He will never give his blessing, if we prefer beauty, wit, wealth, or worldly honours, to faith and holiness". (Henry, M., & Scott, T. (1997). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary (Ge 6:1). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems.) To have God, and not the world be the pattern for our families, we must be weary of having: 3) An Unstable Father that tests God's Patience (Genesis 6:3) Genesis 6:3. [3] Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years." (ESV) In verse 3 when the Lord says, "My Spirit shall not abide in/always strive in man forever," God doesn't say, "My Spirit is not...I'm not going to tolerate this demon activity." God doesn't say, "I'm not always going to allow demons to do this." He says, "I am not going to continue to allow humanity to do this." The indication therefore is that this cannot happen unless there is an openness or a willingness. The wickedness of society in the pre-Flood era is so great that you have people actually soliciting demon control and the demons will eagerly comply for their goal is the upmost wretchedness of man. The result from God points to the withdrawal of God's life-giving Spirit (Sproul, R. C., ed. (2015). The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (p. 23). Reformation Trust.). * How many parents allow their children to dabble in the occult with the excuse that it's just a faze. Be it weegie boards, Taro cards, horoscopes or the gothic fascination with the ties to the occult. Now the question comes at this point of our narrative as to why did people want to do this? Why would a someone want to become the house of a demon? Why would he want to have demonic involvement in his family? Why would he want to have children that would be exposed to this demon power, this demon wickedness? Why? Well certainly not because he thought it was going to destroy him, certainly not because he thought it was going to corrupt his marriage and corrupt his family and make life miserable and catapult him into eternal judgment. Do you remember Genesis 3? Do you remember when Satan went into the Garden? Eve says to Satan...God says if we eat of that tree we're going to...what?...we're going to die, we're going to die." And Satan says, "No you won't. I can beat that one. I can beat that. You do what I tell you, you won't die. In fact, not only will you not die, you will be like God. We'll beat God's judgment. We'll beat that eternal death. We'll beat that judgment. Just do what I tell you." This is the original satanic lie. Now by the time you get into the time after the Fall, and you get into these 1600 or so years, the sentence of death is well known. Why? Because for most of this time Adam is still alive, right? I mean, Adam lived to be over 900 years. So for most of the 1600 years he was around so you didn't need a secondhand explanation of what happened in the Garden. And Adam could tell everybody and it could be passed on by Adam's children, "Look, we are under the sentence of death and we are going to die and we are cursed by God, and men are cursed, and women are cursed. And we're all cursed and that's why we have sickness and that's why we have sorrow and that's why we die. And it's the curse of God." But you can just hear Satan come along and say, "Ah really, we can beat that one. You won't die. You won't die. Not only will you not die, I'll make you like God." And, folks, it's not any different today. Join the Mormon church and guess what, you'll be a God on your own planet having celestial sex forever and populating it with your procreation. Or what about with Natives in their smoke huts sucking in the smoke that supposedly sacrificed to God to get them to the happy hunting ground. Or classically with the Greeks, ah, the mystic river of death awaits you but across the mystic river is eternal life if you follow the gods. Or if you're an Egyptian and you do what the gods of Egypt tell you, you will sail across the river of death into the after life and that's why they buried boats with the Pharaohs in the pyramids. We can beat that. In fact, not only will we beat death, we'll be better than that, we'll make you like God, you'll be gods in the next life. That's the same lie. It's the same thing as going into a pagan temple in Corinth and going up to the Acropolis just south of the city, As you climb the Acropolis and up there there's thousands of priestesses, prostitutes in the days of the New Testament, and you go up there and you engage yourself in a sexual activity with a temple prostitute and thereby you are gaining eternal life and on the way to being turned into a god, you're communing with the gods by doing that. It's the same old lie. It's the same everywhere. It's not anything new. You can sail off into the after life and escape judgment, and escape death and even be like God. All the gods of the nations are demons as 1 Corinthians 10 records. So when you connect with any false system, you connect with...what?...with demons. Satan is still doing it today. Because he is a being who learns by experience, he is a much wiser and more dangerous devil today than he was in the time before the flood. A person who knows this and who knows that we struggle "not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Eph. 6:12), will fear Satan and draw near to Jesus, who has defeated him (Boice, J. M. (1998). Genesis: An expositional commentary (311). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.). Please turn to Jude Humanity is under the curse, life is defined in the obituary of chapter 4 and 5 and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. He lived a long time but he died. And it's just a series of obituaries and along comes the enemy and says, "Hey, we can beat that. In fact, not only will he give you life eternal, but we will make you like God." So people embraced the demon lies. They embraced the demon religions. They welcomed the demons into their lives because the promise is we're going to escape death, we're going to beat this...this obituary process and we're going to get eternal life and be like God. I don't think Satan ever sells his systems by saying this is the straight shot to damnation. Do you? It's always the promise of eternal life of being something greater than you are. Very appealing. Same thing Satan told Eve. Jude explains how this works in verses 5-7: Jude 1:5-7. [5] Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. [6] And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day-- [7] just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. (ESV) * In 1 Peter, 2 Peter and Jude all say that particular Angels were put in prison, they were put in pits of darkness, they were bound with eternal chains under darkness for the judgment of that great day because just like Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, they indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, outside their prescribed realm which was prescribed by God. Genesis 6:3 is the divine response. God looks at what's going on and here He responds, "Then the Lord said, My Spirit shall not abide in/strive with man forever." The Holy Spirit has been striving. This is very important. The only time we've seen the Holy Spirit prior to this is in creation. Remember Genesis 1, the Holy Spirit moving over the waters and brooding, as it were, over the waters and working creation. Here we meet the Holy Spirit again. We find that He wasn't only working in creation but He's been working in provoking repentance. What's He been doing? Striving with man. He's been trying to bring these sinners to repentance and He says, "I'm not going to do this indefinitely." God's grace has its limits. In an individual's life it has its limits. There will come a time when God no longer strives with somebody and with man in general it has limits. A short life, in comparison with the long lives of the previous chapter, marks humanity's fall and separation from its Creator. (Sailhamer, J. H. (1990). Genesis. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers (Vol. 2, p. 77). Zondervan Publishing House.) * God may be striving with you and your family right now. Perhaps you are pushing His patience. We must never presume upon His grace. There is a limit where He will no longer prevent the repercussions of sinfulness. * Perhaps this is a situation in your own life. He may be telling you to repent over a specific issue that you presume He will always just forgive. Yet this presumption may cause you to be further and further from God. Your prayer life will seem empty. You no longer feel His presence. Your relationships become cold and routine. Repent now. We never want God to get our attention. Notice here the limit to God's grace: "his days shall be 120 years." It will be 120 years before the Flood. In this case, I'm going to give people 120 years to repent. As we saw in 1 Pt. 3:20: "God's patience waited in the days of Noah". As Noah's message for those 120 years, as we saw in 2 Pt. 2:5: " Noah, a herald of righteousness". It's always God's way: Warn the wicked, then offer grace and offer forgiveness and through patience, allow a time for forgiveness. In this context, the demonic-human intercourse was, like eating the tree of life, intended to procure eternal life for man. This attempt to usurp what belongs to God alone is therefore condemned. Instead, human life is limited to a maximum of 120 years (Wenham, G. J. (1987). Genesis 1-15 (Vol. 1, p. 141). Word, Incorporated.). Jewish tradition understood the 120 years as opportunity for repentance (cf. Tg. Onq.; Pirke Aboth 5:2; cf. 1 Pet 3:20) (Mathews, K. A. (1996). Genesis 1-11:26 (Vol. 1A, p. 335). Broadman & Holman Publishers.). * Do you know a person who has been trying God's patience? Warn them and offer grace: Tell them God wants to forgive them of their sins but don't test His patience: as 2 Cor. 6:2 says: Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.. (ESV). There is a limit to His patience. Illustration: There's a story of a farmer. He was an unbelieving man and his farm was directly across the street from a church. Each Sunday the Christians would worship in church, but the farmer would display his scorn for them by plowing his fields up and down with his tractor during the worship services. Everyone could hear the noise and all were very conscious of what he was doing. He did this all summer. In October, when the crops were harvested, the farmer wrote a letter to the town's newspaper, pointing out that he had worked every Sunday of the summer and that God had not struck him down for it. Instead his crops were in, and he had prospered as well as, if not better than, the Christian farmers. The newspaper printed his letter. But underneath it the editor of the paper added: "The Lord does not settle his accounts in October." God is patient. His patience means salvation. But God's patience is not unending. One day the accounts will be settled and judgment will come (Boice, J. M. (1991-). Romans (1112-1113). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House.). Finally, to have God, and not the world be the pattern for our families, we must be weary of having: 4) An Unstable Father Reaps What he Sows (Genesis 6:4) Genesis 6:4 [4] The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. (ESV) Then finally, there isn't any patience anymore and judgment comes. The Nephilim here is just a term that means great men, men of stature, men of power, men of influence. It is used only one other time in the Old Testament and that's in the book of Numbers when the spies went in to Canaan in Numbers 13 and they came out and said there are giants in there, we can't knock those people off, they're giants and we're just like grasshoppers. And the reason they used Nephilim there to describe them is because they knew the word from Genesis. Not a race of people, it's not a race of people that shows up again later in Canaan because they would have been all drowned anyway, cause only Noah and his family survived. It's simply a term used in Genesis to describe great men, powerful men. And it was borrowed by the spies in Numbers 13 coming out of the land of Canaan because everybody knew the Nephilim as great powerful men. It's just a generic word for that kind of person. They were called...the term actually means falling ones, the kind of people that fall on you and crush you, powerful, fierce warrior-type people. Many ancient cultures have legends of titans and demigods. This verse appears to be explaining this common memory (across cultures). (Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson's new illustrated Bible commentary (p. 18). T. Nelson Publishers.). Moses says they were on the earth in those days. When the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and bore children to them, those were the mighty men and were men of old, men of renown. They were of flesh. And so, what you have here is that all of the demons promised, all that Satan always promises never does change human nature. It doesn't change human depravity. The world has always had its Belteshazzars, its Alexander the Greats, Caesars, Napoleons, Hitlers and Sadam Husseins, and all the other petty tribal pseudo gods using their evil power to threaten, subjugate and destroy others, but in the end they're just men...just flesh. Satan can't make you anything other than what you are. Satan can't give you immortal blessings. Satan can't make you into a god. Satan can't cause you to overpower God and defy His eternal judgment. Satan cannot deliver you from the penalty of death. He can't do it. Satan can't change you, he can't catapult you into some other level of existence. So, the sad saga of human life after the Fall is that they bought into Satan's lies to such a degree that the whole race was corrupt. This utterly unnatural union, violating God's created orders of being, was such a shocking abnormality as to necessitate the worldwide judgment of the Flood (MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer's Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments (A. Farstad, Ed.; p. 40). Thomas Nelson.). With God design for the family, the Father needs to take a leadership role to be the first line of defence against sin and evil. A family that functions as God intends is a family that will have a preserving impact on society and give a picture of the love of God, Christ's love for His Church (Eph. 5). (Format Note: Some base commentary from http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/90-254/demonic-invasion) Closing Hymn: Prayer Room Invitation 007 Benediction Now to you from Him Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come ... from Jesus Christ, Who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth, May Grace and Peace abound, from the Father, through the Spirit because of the Son. In Christ we pray, Amen. (cf. Rev. 1:4-5) 10